US kidnap victim pleads for life

AN American contractor taken hostage in Iraq has urged the US Government to negotiate with his captors to save his life, according to a video broadcast by Al Jazeera television yesterday.

The video showed the man, named by the US embassy in Baghdad as Jeffrey Ake from Indiana, holding up his passport as armed and masked insurgents stood at his side.

Mr Ake was seized from the site of a reconstruction project near Baghdad on Monday. It is not known who he was working for.